Friday, January 25, 2013

Today we want to share Great Lakes Echo's blogger James Dau's article about evidence provided by NASA satellite imaging of the impact drought conditions continue to have on Great Lakes groundwater. Dau highlights images constructed using NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites that were created between January 8-14, 2013. He goes on to conclude that "Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, and areas along the Indiana-Illinois border show particularly low groundwater levels." Average levels appear in white in the map shown here, while below average areas appear in red. Certainly snowstorms can help alleviate these drought conditions over the winter months, and clearly we could use more snow precipitation if we hope to improve our groundwater storage. Fascinating NASA imaging tool and great reporting by Great Lakes Echo.